BlogHer Day 1: Top Ten Lessons Learned

It's never a good a good sign when you wake up dizzy. I didn't have that much to drink last night at all, so I couldn't have been drunk. But boy was my brain moving slowly. In fact, it took me a good five minutes to realize that I was dizzy from lack of sleep. Oops.

Tonight, I'll sleep more, I promise. In the meantime, I did find the mental wherewithal to remember some of what I learned yesterday, so who can I not share?

Top Ten Things I Learned At Day One of BlogHer

10) Kiwis come in more colors than just green. Seriously, they do. I love kiwi. My family loves kiwi. We eat it allllll the time. And every kiwi I've ever eaten looks the same -- within reason. Granted, some may have been a slightly differnt shape and some may have been a little overripe, but generally they'r the same. Did oyu know they make golden kiwis? And that there are something like 47 different variations of kiwi, including red and white. Huh. Oh, and if you're wondering, the golden kiwis are pretty good. And sweet. And taste nothing like "normal" kiwis.

9) I need a pedicure. The Hanes booth had people who were giving foot massages. That gave me a lovely opportunity to focus on my feet more than I normally do. The nail polish could use a little reboot, but wow are my feet rough after walking around in summer shoes since May 1. Sorry foot massage guy. I promise to book an appointment for the next time my husband allows me out of the house after I get home from BlogHer... sometime in 2013, I expect.

8) My hair does not like the water in the city of Chicago. I remember back when I lived in the city and my hair rocked. Then I moved to the suburbs where we no longer had Lake Michigan water but instead used village well water. It took me a long time to adapt, but apparently my hair is now like that country bumpkin who's never seen the big city. It's overwhelmed by the city water. First is stands straight up in fright in te morning, then it tries to hide by burying itself as close to my scalp as possible, waiting for me to get back to that old trusted water. It's not pretty.

7) To incresae the page ranking of your blog, you need deep links. Google is getting pretty smart. If you're trying to grow your traffic through searches and the like, having people read your main page helps you, but only a little. If people instead click directly to the individual post, you get a whole lot more cred from Google. Interesting concept, I though.

6) Twitter isn't a phone only app. I had no idea. I thought people texted to tweet. Since I don't know how to text and don't have a text plan, I steered way clear. I've now been set straight... and I'm now on Twitter. Greeeeeat. I'm in trouble now, aren't I? Oh, and you can find me there as honestandtruly. I forgot that part, oops!

5) Leaving your phone number with the hotel is a bonus. Not surpisingly, there were no rooms available to check in at the hotel yesterday at 7:30am. But on the waycool plus side, I didn't have to wait in any lines later in the day and miss anything to get my room because the hotel called me as soon as it was ready, as I requested, and I was then able to grab my room key at my leisure. Ahhhh....

4) Even though I've left my twenties, I can still drink in the mornings. Or morning. Granted, this gives a little less credence to my earlier statement about not drinking overmuch last night. But when they offered up the bloody mary at the 10am break, I will admit to taking and drinking one. It was good. Buuuut had there been any one Day 2, I think I would have passed it up.

3) It is possible to go from crying to laughing to crying and back and forth again countless times in the span of less than two hours. The keynote speeches on Friday evening were various bloggers reading their posts. They covered the gamut from mentally ill homeless relatives to Diet Coke's cheating ways to life with special needs children to letters to children and more. Oh, and I don't hide my attempts to avoid crying well. On the plus side, I did somehow manage to avoid having my mascara run all down my face.

2) Men are different from women. Ok, so that I knew already. But in regards to blogging and making your page readable, we're different, too. It's always hard to read garish pages, but the easiest is a light tan with black writing. (Phew, I'm close!) And when you have links, if you don't underline them and put them in a different color, many men are colorblind and can't tell there's a link there. Who'da thunk it? Actually, there were tons and tons of tips about improving blog looks and accessibility. I made several notes, but they all involve time to update, so ummm you may see just this for a long time to come!

And the number one thig I learned on Day One of BlogHer?

HOLY MOLEY! I can touch my toes! Seriously! I've done yoga for years and never touched my toes. I failed the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge as a kid (in part) because I couldn't touch my toes. There was a sitlates lady at the Elations booth, and she fixed me. She had me resist her as I lifted my legs behind my one at a time, then hamstring curl resistance against her, then out to the side. Twice for each leg for less than ten seconds each time. I then bent over and touched the floor. With my fingers. With my legs straight. Without stretching. It was amazing. And I'm now known by several bloggers as "the chick who touched her toes" because they were lucky enough to witness the demonstration. Ahem.

And now... I need to pack up my stuff so I'm ready when my lovely, generous husband arrives to pick me up. Yay! Recap more tomorrow.